Tag Archives: research advice

Discovering research statistics on China

Welcome back to the China Data Center, an online statistical database with the following datasets:

  • Monthly Statistics
  • National Statistics
  • Provincial Statistics
  • City Statistics
  • County Statistics
  • Monthly Industrial Data
  • Monthly Industrial Data 1999-2002
  • Yearly Industrial Data
  • Yearly Industrial Data 1999-2002
  • Statistics on Map
  • Provincial Yearbook (2002 – )
  • Provincial Yearbook ( – 2001)
  • City Yearbook
  • National Yearbook

China Data Center offers some freebies on its website, including a list of geo-spatial vector data including lakes, rivers, canals, and other landforms and a separate listing of free, two-dimensional maps including traffic noise in major cities, coal production, and energy consumption, to name only a few.

NASA satellite image of China

MUSE to have integrated eBooks and eJournal platform in 2012

More after the break (including link to preview).  The most essential piece of information is:

MUSE will provide a one-month preview period during January 2012 to allow librarians and scholars to discover the significant breadth and depth of both book and journal content available on Project MUSE.  At the end of the preview period, January 31, 2012, search results will default to only content to which the searcher has full-text access. At this point, users will have the option to toggle the search to show all available books and journals relevant to a search, if desired.

(Currently Middlebury has no eBooks available in full-text on MUSE.)

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Road Map to Student Services recap

Yesterday Pij and I represented LIS at the Road Map to Student Services event; part of First Year Orientation, which was held concurrently with the Academic Forum in Kenyon. Half of the incoming First Year class attended the Forum while the other half were given “Passports” and asked to collect stickers from each Student Services station they visited (after which they were rewarded with a “frozen novelty”). Then they switched, and the students who had already attended the Forum attended the Road Map event. Since Pij and I handed out a sticker to every student with whom we spoke during the 2.5 hour event, it was easy to keep track of how many we’d spoken with—over 80! No wonder my voice is a little hoarse today.

What kinds of questions did we field? Pij may have heard other questions, but I think by far the most common questions were relating to connecting to Wireless, installing Microsoft Office, and followed by general questions about how to find/check out books and other materials from the Library. Other questions I heard ranged from “What is LIS”, to “Do you have any job openings?”, to “Can you help me set up email on my smartphone?”. Quite a few students stopped by without specific questions, and Pij’s go-to prompt, “Have you been able to set up your computer okay?” was great at drawing out other concerns and questions. I copied her and used that question quite a few times, and also tried asking about their First Year Seminar courses, which gave me a chance to let them know that a Librarian was assigned to each course, as well as a Peer Mentor and explain about CTLR and how it was related to the Library.

All in all it was a great chance to meet new students, hear how things were going for them, and also learn (from Pij) what to say about some of the most common tech-troubleshooting questions. It also underscored for me how essential it was for Pij and I (as LIS representatives) to be fully up-to-speed on recent and forthcoming changes in technology infrastructure and research tools.